Red
by chillysensation
Summary: Rivaille decides to help his new member of his squad - Mikasa, whose leg got tangled in the seddle of her frightened horse, while couple of titans attacked the whole expedition. In that process both soldiersgot stuck in the near sequoia forest, because both of their horses were killed by the titan, who chased Mikasa. Will they find them, or are those days the last in their lives?


**Rivamika week** Challenge Day 3 / **Red**

**Notes:** It took a piece of everything which was included in the original challenge from the red as an important colour in the whole story, over the blood and violence, redish eyes to even a slight embarrasment or red-like surrounding, because it occured in autumn. I know I am two days late. :D But I swear I have it written the day before it, but the translation took me more time than I expected. Please enjoy. :)

* * *

The country was colouring in orange and red as the autumn evinced in his full power. The wind blew loudly, and even though the huge tangled mass of clouds was running over the sky, the warm sun still kept shining, either the typical sharp rains or the chill had not come yet. Nothing of these natural beauties around was noticed by the members of 60th expedition beyond the walls, though.

The Scouting legion was returning after long way back across the open landscape to the wall Rose in average speed. An exhaustion and fatigue was reflecting on soldiers' faces. Many of them sat in the wooden carts without their horses or too injured for riding for their own. Surprisingly the mission had not lost too many lives as usually. The losses were really minimal and despite the common tiredness the soldiers were put into quite optimistic mood.

The black-haired man riding on his horse in the middle of the crew didn't ease up his alertness. Something wasn't right, everything went too easily. He had been the member of Scouting legion for long enough time to know, that their explorations never went well. He couldn't get rid of bad premonitions and turned his head back with concerns.

Although he originally intended to explore the horizon, his eyes froze on the youthful member of his squad, who was just scrutinizing the body of her unconscious friend lying in the cart. The man rather turned back and shook his head as if for excepting the fact, that this time the mission really succeed and there is no point in needless concerns.

As if he awaited it, just barely after a half hour of calm riding the deafening bangs sounded behind his back, as the soldiers in the back of formation shoot the alarm flares. Unfortunately the abnormal types of titans caught them before they managed to escape or come up with some defence plan and they had to fight in extensively disadvantaged situation on the plane nearby the sequoia forest.

He was trying to avoid the sight on the bloody crimson ragged bodies under his feet, while he flew from the falling corpse of titan to another one. He had managed to kill already several of them but the giants kept coming. What was leading them to do so that constantly?

His shirt was completely covered in blood, whose disgustingly sweetish smell was evaporating together with the steam, which the liquid deflated. When he just dug his blades into the bend scruff of one of the highest enemies, he turned his head to the other soldiers on the ground just before the fall of dead titan body before he jumped off.

The Scouting legion almost fended off the sudden titan attack and it all was on the best way to victory, although the chilled ground hid in the bloody veil of death. However, he noticed an unordinary movement in the corner of his eye and as he turned his head to that blur, he got to see a soldier with one leg wrapped in the straps of the horse's saddle hanging with head downwards, vainly trying to disentangle the leg. Unfortunately, one of the titans just decided to follow this poor man.

The eyes of the officer widened up in unpleasant surprise as he recognize his squad member in the poor man.

The black-haired girl fought with the belts tangled in the saddle but the horse had probably got shy and now he continued without any will to stop. After a while the girl probably gave up and reconciled she staid hanging with her head downwards with red scarf streaming along her dark locks. Even from the distance he recognized the sight of hers, he had already seen it once. Her look in the eyes reminded him too much about dead, blurry and to the heaven looking pupils of the ginger woman, who had already managed to die under his command. However, this time he wouldn't have led his inferior pass away. Not anymore.

Without mentioning it to the commander in the combating uproar, he just gave a whistle and got to see his horse slowly and unsurely approaching the Scouting legion surrounded by enemies. He arrived on the horse back with slight, experienced landing and quickly started pursuing the shy horse.

In several tens of minutes, while he kept ramming his heels to the animal's flanks as much as possible, he finally moved closer to the titan and girl's horse in about one hundred of metres. However, he couldn't have done anything, just to agonizingly observe how the titan caught his target just on the board of the sequoia forest and his terrible crooked clumsy limb kicked the horse with all its power. The animal even with the trapped raven haired girl flew for several metres away.

The man clenched his palms in which he crushed the reins and grinded his teeth. Practically just after the titan threw the horse away he kept standing confused because the girl left his sight. Yet he turned to the man who had just approached him and was just about to lean his hand to the human in front of him. That was but the last thing the young captain would have waited for and with one skilful manoeuvre he cut the titan's nape off. However, the titan staggered as unfortunately that the man's horse hesitated by titan's feet and didn't managed to escape from the huge body, so the titan buried him in the ground.

"Damn it!" it escaped man's mouth as he sighted the end of his horse and the only mean of transport from the air.

He didn't concern about it much and immediately, as he landed the ground, he ran to the broken corpse of brown odd-toed animal nearby. His heart skipped the beat, as he got to see the lifeless girl lying on the ground beside the horse with her leg still stuck, this time even under the weight of the whole animal. Carefully he lifted the steed up to pulling her foot out. He knelt to the soldier and with hands shaking he caught her neck to find the pulse.

"Oh, come on! Don't you dare dying here," he uttered firmly in horror, when he couldn't find it.

The captain caught his inferior's shoulders and pulled her closer to be able to put his ear to her chest. She was yielding as ragdoll nevertheless heavy as a piece of iron. He deflected his head with eyes closed and loudly sighed in relief as he was still grasping her on his chest.

"Thanks god…," he whispered.

Still squeezing her in his arms, he noticed the bloody trace on her temporal bone. He lifted some locks of her hair and found luckily quite shallow wound caused by plucking of the skin. The torso of metallic blade, which embedded into her tight apparently due to hard landing, concerned him much more. The surrounding of the cut wound coloured her white uniform trousers into bloody scarlet shade and as he knew perfectly, there was a possibility of blood poisoning.

He took her in his hands and in that process her unconscious head leaned against his chest. With one hand he shot the hook of his 3DMG to the closest sequoia tree and flew up. The branches were wide enough for them to find there temporary asylum. The biggest problem was the lack of gas for manoeuvre gear, though. It would barely hold for more than an hour.

The man put the girl on the widest of branches, which he found in the crown of coniferous tree. He knelt to her and looked straight to her immobile face. His hand caught her cheek. She was cold with skin paler than usually. His fleeting touch had obviously woken her up a bit, because the eyes under the lids started moving and a slight moan left her lips. She opened the eyes and looked up. In that moment he drew his hand off and unknowingly caught it into the palm of the other hand as if to remind himself about the sensation of her skin.

"Corporal?" she pronounced relatively surprised but her face immediately after it twisted into the grimace full of pain.

"Don't get up," he ordered her simply while watching her arms moving.

Good, he thought, at least there was nothing wrong with her spine. Her hands instinctively but shivering searched for the centre of the pain on her thigh and she gave out a shriek as she got to feel blood on the tips of her fingers. She sighed in agony and held the breath.

"What happened?" she asked with thin rasping voice and painfully hissed as her palm brushed accidentally the blade thrust in the leg.

"We stuck here, because the titan chasing you, broke your horse neck and mine was buried under his corpse," he explained plainly with eyes fixed on her body as he put off the manoeuvre gear from her hips. According to the weight of gas tanks he could tell that there was not much gas left inside.

She leaned against her forearms with problems, and as she sighted the ominously deformed foot beside her thigh wound, her eyes wide opened in fright. She ran with her look over the man kneeling by her right, while he was just examining her ankle.

The foot, which had been stuck under her dead horse, was terribly twisted into unnatural angle. He needn't have been a doctor to know, that her articular case of ankle was obviously severely damaged. He didn't dare to put it back into the original position, because there might have been some tarsal bones quite possibly crushed. When he took off her shoe to fix the limp at least, a small groan left her mouth.

"Sorry," he apologized promptly but continued though.

His inferior just silently scrutinized him. Her head descended back on the branch as she got probably exhausted by loss of blood.

He took off his leather jacket and with force he tore his left sleeve of the shirt to use it as an improvised bandage. He ripped it with the help of one of the remaining blades into two strip of white textile and stood up, looking for some splint in the form of wooden branches. The little branches on the edge of the branch they were situated on helped the purpose and he just tore the huge needles off it. He applied them to the deformed ankle and fixed them with the rags of his sleeve.

She led out a hiss but her leg hadn't recoiled. One of her hands was spasmodically clenching and the other one unconsciously put on the gun stuck in her leg, which she pulled it out from. She screamed in agony and twisted as a bow in pain.

"Have you gone mad?!" he blurted out immediately, as he sighted the metal blade covered in blood in her palms and the spreading wet crimson blot on her thigh.

He jumped to her and without even asking he took off her dark red scarf. Numbly she observed him and with absolutely languid arm she tried stopping him. Her with pain wet eyes were gazing at him distantly. He pierced her with his own ones and retorted hastily: "Wanna bleed out? Give me that fucking scarf!"

She remained silent, even though she left his arm in spite of the fact, that he could easily free it, she led him take off her scarf. He lifted her leg a bit and quickly bandaged the bloody wound with the red scarf. Breathless he mopped his sweaty forehead as he plugged up the wound, he found out, that he by mistake wiped her blood on his face. In haste he was trying to clear it away with the other hand and sighed.

Probably the pain drove her crazy, he thought. A surprise and maybe also some certain reproach spread on her face as he leaned to her again. Without words he slowly lifted her up in his arms to bring her over to the very tree trunk and she also seemed to him that she tentatively turned her head away as if to hide her embarrassment. If it hadn't been that miserable kind of situation they just were in right now, in the depth of his soul he would have been selfishly flattered.

As he put her down by the trunk, her head was underlaid by his own jacket. He sat down beside her to lift her hair from the face and look on her abrasion. Not, that he would be comfortable with that but he undid the cravat to rip it to the rags to be able to wrap it around her head.

"Why didn't you say anything, sir? I would tear my own sleeve," she whispered astonished and her eyes were gleaming weirdly.

"It doesn't matter anymore," he uttered like nothing, pretending not to notice the slightly pinkish shade on her pale cheeks.

"Are you injured, sir?" she was concerned with eyes blurry due to her condition, now fixed on his chest.

He had seen this kind of look on her face many times before, when her precious adoptive brother was concerned, but it really caught him off guard, when she did give him this kind of grimace. In surprise he lowered his head towards own chest, on which her eyes was fixed, and sighted quite big streak of blood on it.

"No, I'm not I guess, it's probably someone else's," he replied with the look still gazing on his shirt and then raised his head up, "but since when have especially you been worrying about me?" he couldn't prevent himself from stating caustic note and sat up aside her for leaning his back against the tree trunk.

"Hmmm," she resounded with eyes gazing upwards while she was exhaustedly lying in front of him. After a while of silence she added with substantially higher voice than was usual: "What are we going to do?"

Corporal turned his head back to her. She was frantically biting her lip with eyes blindly aimed upwards and her palm lied on her belly was slightly shaking.

"I don't know," he admitted, watching silently, how one of her tears ran down her cheek even despite all the concentration and constant blinking, "but we haven't died yet. They will surely find us," he states to placate her although he didn't believe it himself. He was completely sure their commander wouldn't risk another lives just for them two in any case.

Just as he realized, what kind of terrible desperate situation occurred them, a weird heavy press of depression got placed in his throat. Frowning he looked down from the tree. So that's how he was going to die. How pathetic.

"Do you think so, sir?" she asked with hoarse voice and turned her head to him.

Her eyes were gleaming how she kept holding the teardrops of despair. In that moment he couldn't have been able to lie to her anymore, as she was staring at him like that. He blinked severaltimes and rather decided to change the topic of conversation.

"How do you feel, Mikasa?" he asked her ignoring her query.

She sighed. "Not so well, sir, I feel feeble."

"Have some sleep," he murmured silently.

"I am frightened to," she whispered almost inaudibly with tone that desperately honest and unable, that he started feeling strange need to hug her.

Even though he didn't want to did so, as if in comforting gesture he ran his fingers over her cheek and observed, how she almost even in relief half-closed her eyes. Then another probably long suppressed tear fell from her cheek and she quickly deflected her face.

His hand stood in the air so he pulled her back silently and did as if nothing happened. It was pretty hard to do so, because he noticed, that the teardrop stopped on his index finger with which he was stroking her face. Soon a slow disjointed breathing started sounding in the silence next to him. She had been probably really tired.

The sky on the horizon had been getting dark already and the heaven blushed as in embarrassment. It started to be really cold, so he crossed his arms on his chest trying to preserve as much physical warm as possible. His uniform jacket would have probably helped him, but he didn't have the heart to let Mikasa sleep on the solid wood underneath. She looked so innocent in her sleep. Her hair were slightly swinging how the autumn wind sometimes blew and to his astonishment he became aware of her actual beauty. Even despite all the scratches and wounds, scars and wheals. And now they were here together for probably the last days of their life.

As the sun set completely, it got colder rapidly and in that moment even the sleeping girl were shivering as he had done so for a while already. Although he didn't wanted to wake her up, there was no other option. Carefully he lifted her head and pulled the folded jacket out, which he unfolded and covered her with it. Of course he managed to wake her up.

She was looking confused at the thing she was covered with, before she realized that it is her superior's jacket. When she raised her eyes to him, she couldn't miss even through the darkness, how he visibly shivered. Without telling anything, she sat up carefully and to his surprise she leaned against his arm and covered them both with his jacket. It was warm as it had been heated from her already.

"You shake all over you, Rivaille," she noted for explanation, when he was just about to start objecting. It was actually really for the first time, when she didn't address him as her superior. The very first time, she pronounced his name.

"It's pitty, that we got stuck here just in that time of year," he murmured and although the military codex didn't allow him to do so, he pressed himself to her more due to the cold which was devouring him. And maybe also because it was really nice to feel the warm of some other human being in his last days of life.

"The autumn is beautiful, though," she uttered with silent slow voice and placed her head on his shoulder, so he felt her breath on his bear skin.

"Yes, it is," he admitted with sigh, rather thanks to her sudden fleeting touches.

"We are going to die here, aren't we," she affirmed thinly and moved her head on his shoulder so she could look at him.

As he turned his head to her, he sighted how she had the eyes covert in sorrow and exhaustion. She was breathing really deeply and slowly, which was most likely the impact of the blood loss.

"I'll look on your leg," he said quickly, avoiding the answer and leaned to her injured left limb.

The scarf was soaked with blood and it seemed the bleeding didn't stop. Listening to her deep breath, he decided to rather not tell her and he just tore his other sleeve off and put it under the scarf.

"It is funny," she started with her slow voice, watching him with amusement, "that you wouldn't touch me at all under normal circumstances," she ended it up almost ironically and when he leaned against the trunk again, her head fell on his shoulder again.

"Are you really flirting with me on your deathbed?" he marvelled but somewhere deep in his stomach he got to feel weird sensation, which he hadn't sensed for really long time already.

"It doesn't matter… any…more," she responded extremely slowly and her breath became periodical again.

"I really am sorry much more, if it is probably our last night," he whispered bitterly and leaned his head to the trunk under his scruff, slowly falling asleep as well as the girl beside him.

* * *

His eyes opened. He didn't sit but lie on the branch. His legs were chilly though, but pleasant warm radiated from his arms. As he awaked a bit, he realized that the hair of the girl beside him tickled his face. As he kneaded the eyes, he realized that his arms hugged his inferior, who slowly breathed into his chest with head buried in it.

With horror he found out, that she's completely cold and with the eyes gazing on her injured thigh he got horrified even more, because it was completely covered in blood and even the wood under her was coloured in scarlet. Her face turned from slightly pinkish shade to light blue. She looked like porcelain doll. She couldn't die to him here yet, he couldn't prevent himself from thinking about and pulled the sleeping girl closer to him and in that process he woke her up.

She looked at him with eyes lidded and confused. It cost him all of his concentration to not look at her with grief. He knew so well, that she wouldn't endure long. He would have survived here like that maybe for another two days quite sure, but she had barely couple of hours.

"I am terribly thirsty," she whispered, too exhausted to talk loudly and to his surprise she cuddled up to him. Her cold cheeks froze him on his chest.

"I will try to find something," he promised and tried to smile at her, although he doubted she noticed it.

He stood up and covered her with his jacket thoroughly. He attached the manoeuvre gear on and turned to sleeping girl for last time, before he jumped down to find some hydraulic structure. As he got to the ground, he decided to continue by feet to spare as much gas as possible.

The surrounding was silent, just sleeping nature. Everything looked so peacefully here. Even despite it he was ready to use 3DMG immediately to escape some approaching titans. Fortunately, it seemed that no giant was to be found in the environs. After probably half-hour long searching he managed to find a brook due to the sound of streaming water. However, the problem was that he had nothing to put water in. He drank a bit and then set off to Mikasa. Fortunately he remembered the way.

As he returned, the girl was deathly lying on the branch and didn't even notice him. He stood up to her and tenderly he caught her in his arms. Pliant as a ragdoll she melted in his arms and her head was lifelessly hanging loosely backwards. Carefully he held her with one hand and with the other one controlled the hook of manoeuvre gear. After several minutes they came back to the brook, beside which he laid the black-haired girl.

"Mikasa, wake up," he spoke to her tenderly and slightly shook her.

No response.

"Come on, get up," he repeated and shook her a bit more.

Her lips were chapped and dry. Eyes closed and lashes glued together. He caught her in her arms and for a while he swayed with her, pressing her towards his chest.

"Please, don't die, not yet," he pronounced with sorrow in desperate prayer and the tears started burning him in the eyes.

The black-haired girl didn't reply and it seemed she didn't breathe either. He laid her on the ground and put his ear on her breasts. It comforted him a bit, when he still got to hear her heartbeat but still she didn't breathe. Thus he inhaled deeply and breathed it to her mouth, while he was holding her nose. He repeated it several times till the girl opened her sleepy eyes again. For a minute it seemed she didn't see him.

"Mikasa!" he shouted and finally drew her attention.

She remained silent and just raised her hand, to fleetingly stroke his cheek and smiled in exhaustion. He blinked at her and turned to the stream beside, from which he scooped water up in his palms and let her drink it from them. The girl didn't drink it much, but still better than nothing. He drank it once more, before he took the languid girl in his arms again and returned with her on their tree.

He laid her carefully on the wood of branch, and due to it he brought her back to reality for a slight moment. She looked at him sleepy.

"I am so tired," she whispered and her eyes started gleaming with tears.

He leaned to her to hear her more properly.

"So most importantly don't fall asleep, please," he answered silently and embraced her like a small child.

"I am so sorry, it will end this way," she continued whispering and two huge teardrop ran down her face.

"Don't say that, we will get out of it somehow, they will find us," he blurted out and his sight started getting blurry as the tears had been accumulating in his eyes.

"But you don't believe it yourself," she averred extremely slowly and tiredly she lidded and then opened again her eyes.

He didn't said anything to it and just bit his lip and felt how the teardrops started falling down his cheeks. Not another member of his squad would die just in front of his eyes still. It couldn't happen.

"Wait, don't leave yet," he pronounced huskily with sobs, which were scrambling from his throat.

"Do you really care that much about me?" Mikasa said in response tardily and sighed swiftly.

"Of course I do, you stupid!" he smiled at her even despite the tears running down his face.

"I have always…," she started but fell silent and in that process closed her eyes and for a while she looked quite dead, before from her last power she added, "…liked you very much."

Just exactly in that moment Rivaille got to hear the loud bangs from pistols and flares on the horizon. He pressed the girl to his chest and quickly he set out towards his comrades, hoping, that they would manage to help his raven-haired inferior.

He flew as fast as possible even despite the tension of 3DMG fading away. He landed clumsily on the ground and with unconscious girl in his arms he started running towards the Scouting legion. Soon they met with some scouts, who he even didn't know personally. One of them gave him a horse, on which he gratefully even with the member of his squad scrambled up and together they moved off to the wall.

* * *

He felt tickling on his forehead while his eyes remained closed. Slowly he awaked and blinked to wake up completely. As he raised his head, he sighted the palm, which had been stroking him before. It belonged to Mikasa, on whose bed his head was resting, how he kept sitting there leaned against it all day. She didn't say anything and even though she was still pretty pale, she heartily smiled at him and that was enough. The captain couldn't control himself and in warm flood of joy he gratefully hugged her.

"Thanks god," he blurted out to her shoulder and couldn't miss the gasp coming out of her mouth.

As he released her from his embrace, her hands automatically grasped his face and her dark eyes neutrally observed him for a minute before she pulled him closer to gave him a fleeting short kiss on a cheek.

"Thank you," she whispered simply and her eyes were gleaming and shining again as back then on the tree.

She handled it. They handled it. They survived. He didn't look at her corpse right now but on a quite lively cadet from his squad and couldn't help himself but nothing made him happier right now than her life.

Subconsciously he caught her face and decided to do something he said to himself he would do, if they survived. She looked surprised at him, but it almost seemed to him, that she came slightly closer towards him. He kissed her long and honestly. This time he wouldn't throw this chance away.


End file.
